Stage 4 Colon Cancer Survivor Turns Misdiagnosis Into Advocacy

At the Rock Your Ribbon Event hosted by 305 Pink Pack, Kasia Orzechowska shared her remarkable story of survival, resilience, and advocacy that began with a misdiagnosis and evolved into a mission to save lives.

Orzechowska was just 40 years old when she received a stage 4 colon cancer diagnosis, but the road to that diagnosis was anything but straightforward. Initially misdiagnosed with gallbladder stones, it wasn't until she arrived for a scheduled gallbladder removal that physicians discovered tumors on her liver. What followed was an intensive treatment journey: chemotherapy to reduce the tumors, surgical resection of both her liver and colon, and a return to chemo, only for the cancer to come back on the opposite side of her liver. She faced it again, had it removed again, and today stands nearly six years cancer-free.

"It was like a death sentence," Orzechowska recalled of those early days, when a Google search of stage 4 colorectal cancer survival rates returned a sobering 12%. Adding to the weight of that moment was the reality that her daughter was only two years old and her son just eight. Diagnosed around Thanksgiving, she waited nearly two weeks before her first oncologist appointment, a stretch of time she described as among the hardest of her life.

Perhaps what makes Orzechowska's story especially powerful is where the seeds of her cancer were planted, during pregnancy. She experienced persistent symptoms including chronic diarrhea, but was dismissed by her gynecologist, who attributed the irregularity to a normal variation of pregnancy. The symptoms never resolved. Two years later, they were traced not to a gallbladder, but to cancer.

That experience now fuels her advocacy. "We have to advocate for ourselves, especially as women and young women," she said. "Listen to our bodies, and make sure that doctors listen to us."

Her children, once the quiet witnesses to her illness, have become part of that mission too. "They're actually little junior advocates advocating for colorectal cancer," she said proudly.

Orzechowska emphasized the urgency of early screening, noting that colorectal cancer is a preventable disease but only when caught in time. With diagnoses trending younger, she sees community events like Rock Your Ribbon as essential spaces for connection, education, and awareness.

"If I can save one life," she said, "that's a job that I've done."

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